A personal reflection on my new book

There are moments in life when a new chapter begins to write itself. Working on What Brings Us Back became such a moment for me. I wanted to understand why people return. Not only to companies and teams, but to places, relationships and moments that shape us. Why some encounters stay with us while others fade instantly. Why one welcome opens something inside us and another remains empty.  In a world that moves faster every day, where artificial intelligence takes over tasks with astonishing ease, one question kept returning to me. What is the one thing only humans can do. The answer revealed itself slowly. We return to places and people where we feel at home. Not because of a first impression, but because of what remains after the moment has passed. That insight became the heart of my book. The power of return. The moment someone chooses to come back.

How the seven steps emerged

As I wrote, I discovered that return is never created by processes or scripts, but by people. By what we do without thinking. By how we open the door. By how we listen. By how we take care of each other. By how we turn ordinary moments into something we want to keep. From this came the seven roles that shape the flow of hospitality. The inviter who sparks curiosity. The welcomer who turns arrival into comfort. The listener who truly sees you. The servicer who quietly makes things work. The delighter who transforms a moment into joy.The admirer who affirms your worth. The attractor who makes you want to return. These are not techniques. They are human movements. We recognize them because we have lived them. But as I looked deeper, I began to see something else. Beneath each step was another layer. A hidden depth that gave the steps their emotional force. A kind of architecture behind the experience. That was when the seven dimensions appeared.

The seven dimensions that bring the steps to life

These dimensions showed me why hospitality can feel magical even when nothing extraordinary happens. They revealed the human forces behind the steps. They explained why certain encounters stay with us for years and others evaporate within minutes. I began to see hospitality in three dimensions rather than a simple line from greeting to goodbye.

Every step carries The Face, the human presence that makes it real. Every step carries The Heart, the intention and warmth behind the gesture. Every step moves with The Dance, the rhythm between two people. Every step holds The Mirror, reflecting something of who we are. Every step contains The Secret, the small detail that makes the moment work. Every step leaves The Gift, something we take with us even when it is not tangible. Every step creates The Legacy, the memory that remains and feeds our desire to return. Once I saw these dimensions, I understood what I had been searching for. The seven steps explain what happens. The seven dimensions explain why it matters. Together they form the deeper anatomy of belonging.

Why I wrote this book

I wrote this book for anyone who works with people. For leaders who want to bring humanity back into their organizations. For teams that try to stay warm in demanding times. For hospitality and service professionals who want to move beyond satisfaction toward real connection. And for anyone who wonders why some relationships feel alive while others become transactional. Return is never automatic. It is a form of recognition. A quiet confirmation that someone felt at home. When people return, it means something meaningful happened. Something human. Something that cannot be automated.

What this book became for me

What Brings Us Back is my first fully English book. I wrote it for a global audience, but even more because the theme is universal. Everywhere in the world, people understand the feeling of coming home. Everyone knows what it is like to return to a place or a person who made them feel seen.  The book rests on a conviction that has shaped my life.  No matter how digital the future becomes, the most powerful revolution will always be human. Only people can offer a real welcome. Only people can create belonging. Only people can awaken the wish to return.

A personal invitation

With this book I invite the reader to look differently at connection. To see the movement of return in their own life. To discover the seven steps and the seven dimensions in the moments that touched them. To recognize how these forces shape loyalty, trust, memory and meaning. And above all, to understand that what brings us back is never a system or a process. It is a person. Someone who listened. Someone who welcomed. Someone who cared. Someone who made us feel at home.

That is what brings me back.
And that is what this book is about.